Best Tips to Sleep Well

Do you need tips to sleep well?

Do you have sleeplessness? We don’t call a night of sleeplessness insomnia. Insomnia is reserved for a more serious condition like:

1. A prolonged period of being sleepless,

2. Poor quality of sleep,

3. Sleep that is not restful and thus non-restorative for. the body.

Insomnia is a symptom of other conditions, like medical condition, mental health problem, or sleep disorder. What are the typical signs of insomnia and how do you recognise these signs? Insomnia means:

1. You have difficulty to fall asleep.
2. You sleep lightly and are easily awakened by the smallest disturbance.
3. You have difficulty returning back to sleep.
4. You can be awakened several times in one night.
5. You wake up in the wee hours of the morning and can’t fall asleep again.

Insomnia can bring accompanying problems like anxiety and depression.

If you can’t sleep at night, it doesn’t mean you can sleep during the day. If you already have other medical conditions like high blood pressure, you may find that your blood pressure is high during the morning immediately after getting up from bed. You should drink more water and take your blood pressure reading at least 3 times during the day; before breakfast, before lunch and before bedtime. Record your readings. If they are high, you might decide to consult your regular physician. However, if your readings go down before lunch, you might want to decide whether you wish to consult with your doctor. Its because if you’re on regular meds to control your blood pressure, it may return to an acceptable level after your morning dose.

If you have irregular sleep patterns, you might wish to see your doctor.

What causes sleeplessness or insomnia?

1. If you feel anxious, worried or afraid before bedtime, then you’ll have difficulty falling asleep. This is why its not good to watch horror films at night before bed.
2. If you’ve experienced emotional events like grief, separation, loss, stress, or unfavorable circumstances, then you may dwell on your anxieties and then you can’t fall asleep.
3. Consumption of stimulants like caffeine, high energy drinks, alcohol or other stimulants, can make you stay awake. Generally, do not take caffeine in any form like in chocolate, cocoa, Coca-cola, and tea, after 12 noon, because its effects may prevent you falling asleep at bedtime. Read the ingredients of all processed food to ensure they don’t contain caffeine.

There are two main types of sleeplessness.

1. Short term insomnia is also known as temporary insomnia. This can be caused by the environment like noises, talking, traffic and etc.
2. Long term insomnia or chronic insomnia, is caused by medical disorders that emit pain. The sufferer can’t fall asleep because of pain. Parkinson’s disease is a nerve disorder that affects sleep. Patients with psychiatric problems have difficulty sleeping. Patients with certain types of drug allergy, may also suffer from sleep problems.

When you can’t sleep in bed, do you lie still and desperately wish for sleep?

The human mind can not be quiet for long. A stream of consciousness runs through the mind. It is nature to remember the negative episodes more then the positive ones. You’ll recall the missed opportunities, rejections, mistakes, accidents, slights, prejudices, injustice more than the good times. Maybe you wish you had one more conversation to tell the other person something on your mind. You compose your speech in your head. When you’re thinking, its unlikely you’ll be winding down to relax to sleep. You’re continue to think, grumble and ruminate, and remain awake for at least one hour.

So, what can you do instead of thinking yourself awake?

1. You should try to count backwards from 500 to 1. Trust me, this exercise requires focus and energy. You’ll feel mentally exhausted in no time. Then you’ll fall asleep.
2. Read a book to relax. I don’t recommend watching a video because sensory stimulation can get you excited and you won’t relax to sleep.
3. Compose a letter if you must say that speech. It does not matter if the intended receiver of the letter can not be reached. What’s important is that you write your thoughts and get them off your chest.

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Recipe for Restful Sleep:

Here are the ingredients for Sleep.

1. Go to bed at a regular time so that your body will get used to the hour.
2. Meditate.
3. Think of positive thoughts; as negative thoughts will get you worked up and unable to relax to fall asleep.
4. Avoid stimulants like coffee, tea, chocolate, energy drinks, and alcohol..
5. Count backwards from 500 down to 1.
6. Read a relaxing book.
7. Write a letter instead of mentally rehashing a speech to someone.
8. Wear ear plugs.
9. If your bedroom is hot, turn on your fan or aircon.
10. Drink a cup of warm milk at least 30 minutes before bedtime. Go to toilet to empty your bladder so that you don’t wake up in the wee hours of morning to use the latrine.
11. Avoid intense exercise workouts in the evening, around 3 hours before your bedtime. Exercise increases blood flow in your body and primes it to respond to need for energy. This state prevents you from relaxing, shutting down and sleeping.
12. Stop using your cell phone, ipad, and computer at least one hour before bedtime. This helps you to relax your eyes and prepare for shut eye. Electronics like smartphones, TV, computers and bright white light emit blue light too. The blue light awakens your brain and the effect can be prolonged to affect your bedtime. We should stop using these bright white lights and electronics around half an hour before our regular bedtime.
13. If you can afford to get quality mattress, pillow and bed linen, these will help you to sleep better. Wash your bed linen once a fortnight, or at least once a month. Your bed should be devoid of body odor or stale smell.
14. Magnesium supplement, can help some people to fall asleep faster at night. It increases metabolism and raises your energy levels. After expending energy, your body feels tired at night and you’ll fall asleep easily. But it is not recommended to take magnesium daily or often. It artificially raises the natural amount of magnesium in your body and that is bad. Long term use of magnesium is bad. You should consult your physician before starting on magnesium.
15. Melatonin is a sleep hormone that is produced naturally in your gut. If you eat a melatonin supplement before bedtime, it usually needs half an hour to affect your body, before you drop off to sleep. Don’t exceed the recommended dose, which is written on the bottle. To be on the safe side, consult your regular doctor before starting on melatonin.
16. A healthy gut will produce melatonin at the right time, amount and quality. How do you make your gut healthy? You can aid your gut by eating prebiotic foods like beans, pulses, lentils, garlic and onion. A small quantity of this mixture is sufficient per day.
17. Tryptophan is an amino acid that boosts the body’s production of melatonin. Tryptophan is found in milk, turkey meat, pumpkin seeds and walnuts. You can choose to eat one of these at dinner.
18. Older middle-aged women who are going through menopause feel hot because of flushes and perspiration. When this happens when they are lying down in bed, they feel discomfort and can’t fall asleep. To reduce body heat, it is recommended to avoid consuming these for dinner onwards: aicohol, caffeine, nicotine and spicy foods.
19. Avoid drinking fluids 1 hour before bedtime. This will allow you to empty your bladder for the night. If you have a weak pelvic floor, you will still be awakened when you feel your bladder is full. On average, all middle-aged people usually need to wake up to go to the toilet at least once during the early morning hours.
20. If you experience dry mouth after sleeping for a few hours, you buy a humidifier for your bedroom. After brushing your teeth, use a mouthwash that does not contain alcohol. During the day, drink plenty of water to moisturize your mouth’s inner lining.
21. If you need a night light in your bedroom, use a small one to minimize the light.
22. If you have a bedside table clock, and it is ticking loudly, try to put it in your bedside table’s drawer to reduce the sound.

Instructions:

You can choose a few ingredients; whatever you need to help you sleep. Its not necessary to do everything on the list because you’ll spend too much time trying to sleep and actually reduce your regular sleep time.

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Insomnia A Haiku

Tonight I’m sleepless;

evil pulls me wide awake –

sleep is memory.

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I wrote a hypothetical ad for a Sleep Therapist:

SLEEP THERAPIST WANTED

Job Scope: Consultation, design, and implementation of therapy to improve sleep patterns.

Credentials: Degree in Psychology/ Psychiatry/ Mental Health, clinical experience in sleep disorders.

Work week: 5 day.

Salary: $3000/ month.

Other requirements: Local citizens only.

Contact: Anne, WA: 000 000 0000.

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Note: Above ad is a fake ad.

Don’t do sleepmaxxing

Sleepmaxxing, meaning activities and products to get the best sleep quality and quantity, is currently the “it” word on some social media platforms.

One of which is hanging by the neck and swinging around by the neck. This is dangerous and not recommended by experts from universities. Hanging by the neck can cause strangulation, suffocation, a broken neck and even death. Medical treatment is time consuming and expensive. The damage suffered can be irreversible.

There is no medical evidence to support the claim that hanging in the air, by the neck, helps in getting good sleep. Please don’t try this dangerous activity.

People who run after sleepmaxxing are creating stress for themselves, which is bad as it is detrimental to sleep. The proper way to seek help for sleep issues is to consult a medical expert like your family physician.

Related posts:

— https://artmater.com/?s=sleep